On this short holiday break show, I talk about taking simple portraits of the people you love. My daughter needed a photo for an application and I was surprised to find I didn’t have a simple portrait of her. On the podcast, I talk about why these simple portraits get overlooked, why they are important and some places to find good light for your portraits.
I used three different kinds of light for these recent photos of my kids. The first I used a table top soft box light. The second, is window light. The third is a bounced flash. All three photos are in the room I talk about in the show. It’s the one room in our house that gets a decent amount of light.
This year, I discovered that the doorway of our windowless garage was a good place to take simple portraits.
I love to see photos you make. Share a simple portrait you love in the comments.
Sign up for weekly emails about the show.
Next week, photos in the snow.
January 10, a great conversation with Kirsten Lewis.
Hi Jenny. Thanks for the podcasts on simple portraits. It is a subject that has become more front and center for me lately with having lost both my grandmother and my mother within the past year. I actually listened to this podcast after I took the attached photo of my dad. I have to say it was really hard and surreal for me to take a photo of him without my my mom in the photo, but I’m so glad I did. Historically, he’s one of those that is really camera shy and tries to disappear when the camera comes out. However, the last couple of years he’s been on a genealogy rant, and I think he now sees the importance of having photos when he goes back to try to find a photo of someone in our ancestry.
I have a room in my basement, no windows, that I’ve been trying to practice some flash photos, and flash is something I struggle with but I would like to get better at, so that, along with back-button focus, are on my new year’s resolution list for photography.
I’m attaching a photo from my very first portrait session of my dad, taken on New Years Eve.
Just found this podcast and love it. I love that it is family oriented and that’s my main reason I started photography to have better photos of my kids. This is going into my second year of learning photography so anxious to see what the new year brings..